


Always Watch Shepard's Six Because If The Mission Doesn't Kill You Garrus Vakarian Might

by Lunarflare14



Series: Empty Galaxies [4]
Category: Mass Effect
Genre: F/M, Major Character Injury, Mass Effect 2, Other, Paragade (Mass Effect), Pre-Relationship, Tension
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-10
Updated: 2014-02-10
Packaged: 2018-01-11 21:41:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,957
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1178244
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lunarflare14/pseuds/Lunarflare14
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Garrus is being given space and it's fine until it's not.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Always Watch Shepard's Six Because If The Mission Doesn't Kill You Garrus Vakarian Might

 

After Sidonis, Shepard gave him space. At first he was grateful because he’s still angry, both at her and at himself. She didn’t take him on away missions, though mostly it was helping Thane with a family thing. It was rare that she visited him just because anymore, too. At first the space helped. It gave him some room to think, breath, really grieve for his team.

It continued though. Shepard took Jack when going to help Miranda with her sister and Zaeed when helping Jacob with his father. They weren’t exactly high risk at the start, but as usual, simple missions went to hell pretty fast. It was nothing Shepard couldn’t handle, but it put him on edge, being stuck on the Normandy, waiting. When she wasn’t on missions, she was in the mess. It was close enough he could hear her and it annoyed the hell out of him when he heard her muffled laugh through the battery doors.

Even though he knew it was ridiculous and that Shepard wouldn’t do that, he felt like he was being punished.

Haestrom was probably the breaking point for him. Tali had been his squad mate and she was in trouble. Garrus itched in the briefing room, desperately wanting her to say his name when it came to her squad for the mission. But he knew she wouldn’t.

“Alright you know the plan. I’m gonna have Jacob and Grunt with me on this one. Dismissed.”

If his heart sank a little, it was because he really didn’t think it was a good idea. Yeah, Jacob may have prior history fighting geth, but that could prove more distraction then advantage. The krogan was getting cabin fever and Garrus didn’t like the idea of Grunt going on a rampage and not checking Shepard’s six. It was like the girl didn’t know to check behind her sometimes and with the sun on Haestrom burning through shields, taking a real hit would cause some heavy duty damage.

Everyone else left the comm room but him, and Shepard, being the person who she was, noticed.

“Be careful.”

Shepard’s face remained neutral as she went to leave. “It’ll be fine Garrus. You worry too much.”

Garrus grabbed her shoulder. “Or maybe you don’t worry enough.”

Shepard didn’t shrug off his hand like she always did with Miranda and Kelly, but he could tell she thought about it. Her features softened a little, tension in her shoulders eased. “I’ll be fine.” She offered a smile, attempting to reassure him. “After this mission, Mordin has some business on Tuchanka...” Her sentence trailed off and he realized she was putting it out there. Whether as a peace offering or a bribe to get him to let this mission go, he wasn’t sure.

“Alright. Just be careful, Shepard.”

A nod from her and he let go.

The bad feeling he had started getting worse the moment Shepard was off the ship. He made a promise to himself that he would apologize after this. Justice wasn’t as black and white as he liked to believe, and it was just so hard sometimes, watching the bad guys get away.

But Sidonis may have been a coward and a traitor, but killing him wouldn’t have brought Garrus peace in the long run. Sometimes Shepard knew him too well. He would also have to thank her too. She always went above and beyond for her crew, for him.

It was odd that she had waited for him to break the silence between them. Usually, she was straight forward and to the point and never just let things sit. But things between Shepard had never been that tense. Perhaps she was just being tactful.

Garrus stopped his attempts a calibrating their new Thannix cannon because he was, if anything, making it worse. It didn’t help that EDI kept butting in with suggestions. Eventually he wandered out to the mess where Thane sat at the table. No one else seemed to be around.

Garrus waved. “What do we owe the honor?”

Thane shrugged. “EDI has informed me that the air is particularly dry out here today. Sadly, the rest of the crew seems preoccupied with mission at hand.” Those dark eyes looked him over a bit. “How have you been?”

This wasn’t a conversation Garrus wanted to have right now. “Better. Settling things with Sidonis… It’s put my world back right side up.” He shrugged. “I just hate all this waiting.”

Thane nodded. “I feel the same. It is not easy when I am left on the Normandy. I think we all feel that way.”

Garrus laughed a little. “Well, I meant waiting to attack the Collectors but yeah… the current waiting game isn’t fun either.”

“Shepard has been letting the others… ‘stretch their legs’ were her words. I believe she feels she has been showing favoritism.” It took a moment for Garrus to realize Thane was probably talking about him. “I hope you do no still hold anger toward Shepard for what happened. I can see that she greatly misses spending time with you.

For a moment he considered brushing it off. But Thane would know better anyway so what was the point? “I miss her too. You were right. She was just looking out for me.”

“Many of us here are getting close to her, but it isn’t the same. She needs you.”

Garrus was blessed with the sound of the medbay alarm going off and Chakwas scrambled for the lift.

It felt like his insides had frozen over. Fear surged through him and Garrus jumped in after her, bouncing with anxiety as they rod to the shuttle bay. The shuttle was just setting down when they arrived; already open with Grunt hoisting Shepard out. A huge hole in her armor revealed a wound in her side gushing out red. Garrus took her from him, taking the bulk of her weight while Chakwas called for a stretcher. She started unclasping the locks on the Commander’s armor.

Shepard looked up at him, dazed. Her face was pale and a light sweat had covered her forehead. “Hey.”

“Hey, yourself.”

Garrus held her steady while Chakwas slapped on the Medigel. The doctor shook her head, mumbling about blood platelets and implants. She yelled for one of the crew to radio Miranda.

Meanwhile Shepard frowned up at him. “I’m bleeding all over you.”

“It’s fine.” It was. Armor could be cleaned. Shepard was grumbling under her breath now too, something about flesh wounds before she snorted. Finally, a crewman arrived with a stretcher. Once Garrus placed Shepard safely on it and saw her rolled into the elevator, he turned and slowly stalked towards the bickering squad mates. Jacob’s biotics were flaring as he and Grunt continued their shouting match. Grunt looked about to snap Jacob in half. They were shouting back and forth about the mission, pointing fingers and name calling may have been involved. Grunt went on a rampage, breaking formation and causing them to have to compensate on their own. Jacob was apparently also out for blood. Not hearing the captain call out grenade and nearly having his own head taken off had set him on edge and broke his focus completely. Also there was something in their about wasting bullets.

Garrus had heard enough.

When Garrus was finally within their reach he took out his pistol and held it to Grunt’s head just as he grabbed Jacob by the throat, his grip on both firm but not deadly. “Shut up.”

The silence in the hanger was deafening. Other crewmen stumbled for the next elevator, frightened. Jacob struggled a little in his grip but couldn’t break free.

“Jacob—you let your personal vendetta against the geth get in the way of your judgment.” He shoved Jacob away by the neck. “Grunt— next mission is straight for Tuchanka because there is something definitely wrong with you if you think that battle is more important than watching the Commander’s six. Both of you are grounded. I don’t know what Shepard was thinking.”

Jacob glared. “You can’t ground me! Miranda—“

“Completely agrees with Garrus.” The Cerberus agent had emerged from the lift, fuming. “Both of you are confined to the ship. We’re heading for Tuchanka anyway.” She looked to Garrus, begrudgingly. “I’m still second in command, you know.”

Garrus shrugged. “I got here first.”

Miranda smirked. “Shepard was asking for you.”

He turned back to the squad mates, still tense. “You’re getting off easy.” Lowering his gun from Grunt’s head, he went over to the lift.

Med bay was cleared. Shepard was hooked up to some weird machine, and finally out of her armor. She looked blissed out on med-gel but her side was finally not bleeding. “My platelets are apparently all messed up. Makes medi-gel not work right, and my blood not to clot. Had to slab a heap on there.”

“I’m sorry, Shepard. I should have said something before you left. I had concerns and I didn’t bring them up. If I had—“

“You should have been there with me.” She said sleepily. “But I always take you with me. I thought; why not mix it up a little? Garrus probably wants some down time after…. Everything. On paper they should have been a good team.”

Garrus shook his head. “Maybe if Grunt had been keeping his head.”

“I messed up.”

He chuckled. “No. You got the job done and saved Tali and one of her squad. The mission was complete. I would have preferred you not to have a hole in your side, but you did good.” He took a deep breath, sitting in a chair next to her bed. “I’m a big boy, Shepard. I didn’t need space.”

“Really?” Even losing a fifth of her blood she managed to be sarcastic.

“Okay, you’re right. I probably needed some time, but that was probably up around the time of that fiasco with Jacobs’s father.”

 She shrugged. “Maybe I needed time.”

That was new. “What for?”

He could almost see her close in around herself, like he could the defenses raise in her eyes. “I wanted to let you kill him. But I knew what it would do to you in the long term. I nearly lost you because of him…” she trailed off and Garrus gave her a smile.

He took a deep breath. Now was as good a time as any. “You were right though. I wanted vengeance. Not justice. Sometimes the two go together but other times? I just don’t know.” Some of her front hair had fallen in her face and he brushed it out of the way.

The smile he got in return was warm and affectionate. “That was really human, just now. So many cinematic moments revolve around that.”

Garrus shrugged. “Doesn’t really seem sensible, all that hair. Not sure what evolution was thinking. Thought you’d want it out of the way.”

She laughed. “Thanks.”

“And by the way. With Sidonis? Anyone else probably would have been shot.”

Her eyes had drifted closed. “Then I count myself lucky to be on the side of angels.”

“I told you; the locals picked it out.”

“Sure they did.” Shepard was asleep in only a few seconds.

Garrus stuck around after that, not trusting himself to face the rest of the crew. It also calmed him immensely, listening to the beep of the machine keeping time with her heart. She was safe and alive. That was really all that mattered.

For a moment, when he saw all that blood, he thought he was going to lose her again. He wondered briefly what would have happened to Jacob and Grunt, had that happened.

It was probably better that he didn’t think about it.

 


End file.
